U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562, entitled "System and Method for Purchase and Application of Postage Using Personal Computer," describes a cost-effective alternative to the classic mechanical or electromechanical postage metering devices used in the commercial business environment for the past 50 years.
The rental cost of conventional meters has impeded their widespread adoption. By way of example in the US market, as of 1997 there are only about 1.6 million postage meters in service. When compared to an estimated 20 million small businesses in the US, it is clear that conventional meters have never achieved the mass penetration that copy machines, FAX machines or PC's have. The primary reason is a perceived high (and recurring) cost which outweighs the convenience in the eyes of potential users.
In 1996 the US Postal Service published in the Federal Register draft specification for a system (coined the IBIP or Information Based Indicia Program) using the same basic concepts presented in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562. However, the USPS added a number of security and operational requirements that add substantially to the initial and ongoing cost of fielding a PC-based postage meter. The added USPS requirements have essentially priced the technology out of the reach of the small PC-based mailer, with monthly costs estimated to be more than a conventional entry-level mechanical or electro-mechanical meter.
This document describes a method of electronically dispensing postage using PC-based system that retains the cost viability of the original PC-based postage application system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562, while simultaneously meeting the host of additional requirements imposed by the USPS. The present invention also provides the technical means for postal agencies such as the USPS, UK's Royal Mail, or France's La Poste, or the newly-formed Postage Fee-For-Service bureaus, to compete with conventional meter vendors by directly dispensing postage with integral, digitally signed indicia data to end users electronically on a mail piece-by-mail piece basis. The mail piece-by-mail piece disbursement approach has strong parallels to so-called "micro-transactions" or "milli-payments," which are the subject of considerable focus for Internet applications.
In addition to serving end user mailers, the present invention can be used to dispense postage strips at postal agency retail sites (e.g., Post Office counters). This technology could replace the expensive, non-IBIP meter strip technology which is currently in use at such locations.
Referring to FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562 describes a postage management and printing system using common personal computer components, including a printer 11b, modem 11c, and non-volatile local memory to store balance and other key data. U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562 also presented a proposed postage mark of simple design that expressed the fundamental information required by the USPS--city and state of origin, date of issue, amount of postage and meter number. The '562 patent also proposed that each mail piece be assigned a unique serial number, and barcode representations of the postage amount and numerical identifiers.
The mail pieces produced by the system of the '562 patent would contain a complete and verified delivery address, a barcode for facilitating automated routing and sorting of mail pieces, and a postal indicium (i.e., a stamp or postal mark) that contains, at minimum, the following information:
Postage Amount PA1 Date PA1 City of Origin PA1 Postage Meter Number PA1 Piece Serial Number PA1 an entirely new generation of PC-based metering systems; as well as PA1 a technology replacement for conventional mail room electro-mechanical postage meters. PA1 secure balance storage; PA1 secure date/time maintenance (using an on board clock); PA1 creation of digitally signed indicia messages (to be represented in a 2-D barcode); PA1 management of secure transmissions between the user and the Vendor and/or USPS; PA1 multi-year battery lifetime; PA1 secure storage of encryption keys; PA1 storage of X.509 data certificates; PA1 a communications mechanism to interact with the host, and in turn with the USPS and Vendor; and PA1 compliance with FIPS-140 cryptographic and physical security standards.
The postal indicium information could take the form of human-readable text and/or a barcoded representation.
The fundamental anti-fraud mechanism taught in the '562 patent was premised on the mailing authority (e.g., the USPS) checking for uniqueness of the meter/serial number combination during automated processing of the mail. If a duplicate meter/serial number combination was detected, the mail piece could easily be intercepted, or at minimum, a graphic image of the mail piece could be captured.
The ultimate reliance on the aforementioned anti-fraud approach is mandated by the way in which indicia are created in this new venue--using commonly available desktop printers (e.g., with laser, inkjet, or matrix printers) using standard (typically black) inks. This type of mark is very easily replicated (e.g., by a conventional photocopier). In contrast, conventional postage meters produce a phosphor traced, red ink mark. In addition, conventional meters are required to slightly "emboss" the material on which they print. As a result, it is reasonably difficult to replicate the imprint of a conventional postage meter.
A facsimile of a test mail piece created on a personal computer and mailed by officials of the USPS on Sep. 12, 1996 appears in FIG. 2. The indicium includes all of the information discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562, some in human readable form and some represented in a PDF-417 two dimensional barcode. The barcode contains a host of information, including the meter number and a unique serial number for the mail piece, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,562.
The USPS specifications require use of the PDF417 indicium barcode, although other two dimensional barcodes such as the DataMatrix are also under consideration. The USPS is currently requiring that the barcode contain nearly 500 characters of information. Some of this data are attributable to an attempt to incorporate letter/parcel tracking information, and part is to accommodate an encryption signature and accompanying public key information which is used in combination to provide a "self-authenticating" feature to the mail piece.
The indicium encryption signature (and more specifically the associated FIPS-140-level secure hardware required to generate this signature at the user's PC), along with the USPS requirement to have a local CD-ROM subscription containing all USPS ZIP+4 address information, has driven the costs of a PC-based metering system beyond what can be reasonably tolerated by the marketplace.
The encryption signature in the proposed USPS IBIP indicium barcode can not prevent counterfeiting by simple duplication, and that fact is recognized by the USPS. The USPS states that the goal of using the IBIP indicium barcode is to produce an "indicium whose origin cannot be repudiated". It's intended use is for manual spot sampling of pieces in the mail stream for a period of up to 5 years. During this 5 year period, the USPS plans to simultaneously ramp up the necessary equipment to provide for 100% automatic scanning of these mail pieces.
Ironically, when the USPS achieves the 100 percent scanning capability, they will no longer need an encryption signature, because capturing the unique meter number and piece serial number and comparing that to a national database will immediately identify counterfeit or suspect pieces.
Following the "interim logic" of the USPS, using a barcode reader and a public decryption key, a Postal Inspector could examine a given mail piece and compare the printed destination address with the ZIP+4 embedded in the PDF417 barcode. This would insure, at minimum, that the indicia was properly synchronized with the actual delivery address printed on the mail piece. It would prevent counterfeiters from simply scanning (copying) an otherwise valid barcode and placing it on another mail piece which has a different destination ZIP+4.
However, until scanning and verification of the postal indicia on all mail pieces is available, the "interim logic" will not capture duplicate counterfeits which simply have the same destination address or even the same ZIP+4.